Great licensed platformers

I know I'm not the only one round here who likes his platformers. For this thread, though, let's celebrate the licensed platformer of yesteryear that are - against all odds - great!

Tiny Toons: Buster's Hidden Treasure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd5ZvFnUmps

This was, and still is, a real cracker. It handles so tightly, and the soundtrack and graphics are superb. This kicked my arse as a kid, but was well worth playing a Konami game from this era.

~~~~~

This is probably a nostalgic choice for me, but I want to dig it out of the cupboard now I've brought it up:

Yogi Bear's Gold Rush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ub57R_1ZTM

Lots of effort went into the graphics for this one, the controls are responsive and the soundtrack is nice and bouncy. It's not a pushover, but neither is it frustratingly difficult.

There was so many good ones during the 16-Bit era but Aladdin seems to be the most talked about as the Mega Drive AKA Best version & SNES AKA the not so good version are so different.

I've never played the SNES version, but the fact that it's made by Capcom makes me infinitely more interested in it than the Mega Drive version. And yes, I know about the fact that the MD version included animation from original Disney artists.

This settles that argument

Great response from David Perry there. If only all developers were so amicable.

I have fond memories of the NES Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers (no not the football club ) this video is decent once you get by the horrible autotune cover of the show's theme music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p38Z5AkZq0

Original theme song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfxIa-643zI

I've never played the game, but I'm posting this cover of the music anyway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHEgzRtKC5o

Balladeer wrote:

I've never played the game, but I'm posting this cover of the music anyway:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHEgzRtKC5o

Parts of that song are very Trey Parker & Matt Stone-esque.

Thanks for sharing that, Jas. Don't know how I missed that set of videos, I thought I'd seen all the HVGNs.

Chip & Dale isn't as good as I remember it, sadly. Having said that, though, the handful of people I've tried to play it with in recent times have all been really rubbish at it.

Stu_the_great wrote:

Tiny Toons: Buster's Hidden Treasure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd5ZvFnUmps

This was, and still is, a real cracker.

The Tiny Toons games were awesome. I'd say that Buster Busts Loose was even better though.

I should also point all y'alls to former GamesRadar editor Chris Antista's webisode of the Top 5 Tiny Toons Games Of All Time. The fact a franchise can have a "top 5 games" is in itself something.

Back on Aladdin I think it's the first game I ever played,

The Lion King was also great on the mega drive

Nice vid, Jimbo! I was never sure about the NES outing, it looks a bit like a bland SMB3 riff to me. As it happens, I sent off for Buster Busts Loose just last week. Should be here next week, never played it before.

@mas: I must've played Aladdin and Lion King on Amiga 1200. I've definitely played both of them, but it was never on Mega Drive. I'd like to give them both a spin again.

You should

Looking at my Mega Drive games I own quite a few, what a era of platformers and licensed games that were half decent then it all went wrong when everything went 3D apart from a odd shining lights

I would say these are the best I own well maybe not best with a some there
Aladdin, Very Good
Cool Spot, Did we all forget about the 7 Up mascot
Disney Collection: Quackshot / Castle Of Illusion, Both good games especially CoI
Donald in Maui Mallard, I've not played I should give it a go
Earthworm Jim, Classic game
Fantasia
Global Gladiators, One of the few McDonald's games
Mickey Mania
The Ren & Stimpy Show presents: Stimpy's Invention, Check this out Stu it's excellent
TaleSpin
Taz-Mania
Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure
Toy Story, This looked amazing and blew my mind
World of Illusion

On DC I think Donald Duck Quack is rather decent

Fantasia is rubbish, I can tell you that for free. That Donald Duck game is super expensive on the SNES, but it's on my list. Didn't do a bundle on Cool Spot back in the day, either.

Mick and Mack! I used to play that every week on the demo Mega Drive in my local Boots. Good times.

I should harp on about the following on NES:

DuckTales
DuckTales 2
Darkwing Duck
Batman: The Video Game
Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Bucky O'Hare

I would also rant on about Little Nemo: The Dream Master (based off a little known film), but it's so hard it makes me want to drop kick endangered creatures. So many great licensed NES games!

Stu_the_great wrote:

Fantasia is rubbish, I can tell you that for free. That Donald Duck game is super expensive on the SNES, but it's on my list. Didn't do a bundle on Cool Spot back in the day, either.

Mick and Mack! I used to play that every week on the demo Mega Drive in my local Boots. Good times.

I should harp on about the following on NES:

DuckTales
DuckTales 2
Darkwing Duck
Batman: The Video Game
Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Bucky O'Hare

I would also rant on about Little Nemo: The Dream Master (based off a little known film), but it's so hard it makes me want to drop kick endangered creatures. So many great licensed NES games!

Huh about the bold, I can't remember much on Fantasia I might have to pop it in. I had Little Nemo with my first NES can't recall much about it also I do hear Darkwing is good and I never knew there was a Bucky game.

Donald set me back about £15 on mega drive.

Yeah, I was never a fan of Cool Spot.

Bucky fetches a decent price on eBay, but it's one of the prettiest games on NES with extremely tight controls and varied gameplay. Recommended.

If ever I beat the original, I'd like Sunsoft's follow-up to Batman: The Video Game. Another spiffy-looking game from their development house: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1Ivxnpbd5Y

I used to love Cool Spot. It was great fun.

Stu_the_great wrote:

Yeah, I was never a fan of Cool Spot.

Bucky fetches a decent price on eBay, but it's one of the prettiest games on NES with extremely tight controls and varied gameplay. Recommended.

If ever I beat the original, I'd like Sunsoft's follow-up to Batman: The Video Game. Another spiffy-looking game from their development house: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1Ivxnpbd5Y

I've not got a NES, so Bucky is a no go. I see Batman more of a beat-em up, I do own 3 of them on MD but not sure who made those but I've not got the rare & the best one though.

I remember the animation being pretty spiffy.

Looking at the Batman games on MD

There's
Batman which Sunsoft did do but is based on the Film
Batman Returns, SEGA did this
Batman Forever, Probe did this
The Adventures of Batman & Robin which SEGA did and is meant to be one of best Batman games there is but is £50

The USA did get Batman: Revenge of the Joker as well which is a remake of Return of the Joker on NES, I don't know if it's much different aprat form the graphics.

The original Batman on NES is definitely a platformer. You do get to punch goons to bits, but the challenge is definitely the platforming (and the increasingly unfair bosses).

I know nothing about Batman, I just find these simple games from the era fun.

Stu_the_great wrote:

... I sent off for Buster Busts Loose just last week. Should be here next week, never played it before.

You are in for a treat, sir - BBL is a great game. When I saw this thread begin, I thought of Buster Busts Loose! and Cool Spot immediately. The former is a fine, if short, game and although I never really got on with the latter, it was good quality stuff. Duck Tales has already been mentioned, so my brain tells me I'm all out for the moment.

Noted, though, is that the majority of the mentioned games appear to be on the Mega Drive, NES or SNES...

ZeroJones wrote:

Stu_the_great wrote:

... I sent off for Buster Busts Loose just last week. Should be here next week, never played it before.

You are in for a treat, sir - BBL is a great game. When I saw this thread begin, I thought of Buster Busts Loose!

In truth, Zero, it was a mention on your recommendation a while back that made me want it. Coupled with my love of the Mega Drive outing, natch.

And you're spot on: quality licensed gaming does seem to take a nosedive after the sixteen bit generation, doesn't it?

I read that exchange after looking at the Rumour Buffet thread, and, well, my mind went in what is almost certainly the wrong direction...

Yep the 8 & 16 Bit era seemed to be great for them, I think people learned from quick stuff like E.T. and cartridges costing a lot that they had to make fairly decent games then it didn't go so good when CDs became a thing as they were cheaper I think they started to come sloppy as they could make cheap again also platformers apart from a few also went away. As now batman could now be a 3D action game instead of a 2D platformer.